RTÉ Player has launched a new on-demand Culture collection, featuring an eclectic mix of documentaries and performances from the worlds of Music, Arts, Film & TV and Literature.
Each week, the RTÉ Player team suggest a ‘must-watch’ from the Culture collection. This week, the focus is on Brendan Behan – The Roaring Boy.
Join actor Adrian Dunbar, long an admirer of Behan’s work, as he sets out on a journey to recover the man from the myth. Over the course of the documentary, Dunbar travels to the other cities in which Brendan lived and where his reputation and output is still highly regarded. Throughout the documentary Adrian meets with a number of high profile people, including Irish film director Jim Sheridan, writer J.P. Dunleavy and actor Kathy Burke, all of whom have a personal connection to the author.
In Paris, he visits the Left Bank cafes and hotels where Brendan first found the confidence to write and started what would become The Borstal Boy. In London, Adrian meets fellow actor and director Kathy Burke who has directed a hugely successful production of The Quare Fellow and has long been a Behan fan. And In New York Adrian finds out how The Hostage in particular blew away the stuffy European plays that American audiences were used to seeing and how Behan became a mentor to the younger Beat writers in Greenwich Village.
Watch Brendan Behan – The Roaring Boy now on RTÉ Player or browse through the many titles available in the RTÉ Player Culture Collection.
